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Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Preventive Care & Rewards

While we all know this age-old adage – Prevention is better than cure, we all have faltered in its implementation.To enforce prevention, policy of carrot & stick works best. And our society has adopted this effectively to discipline its members for centuries.In driving, we follow the discipline to escape the penalty. In auto insurance case, we drive carefully to enjoy no claim bonus credits, during policy renewal. At work, we perform to enjoy good rating and financial reward. During schooling, grading system and parent recognition drive most of us to study hard. And in sports, it is the fame, fan following and rich financial gain motivates players to excel in their field.

If this is true in majority of our social behavior, healthcare is no exception.

Surprisingly, preventive healthcare still lacks the stick & carrot approach. And the results are obvious. 74% population in this world is classified as sedentary by WHO, and 29% is overweight & obese. In urban India, central obesity is as high as 57% and lifestyle diseases affects 17% of our country.

Stanford University, along with Accenture had implemented STEPTACULAR, a reward based activity program to affect positive behavior change in participating employees. And results were very encouraging, with 89% participation, and 64% employees showing enhanced activity levels, weight-loss and sustained behavior, 90 days post the program completion.

GetActive has done similar initiatives at large multi-national corporations. Every STEP is linked to GetActive currency. The response from employees has been encouraging. Rewards, coupled with competitive events have multiplier effect. GetActive program have Walkathon, Groupathon, Billion Steps Goal and 10,000 STEPS Challenge as competitive events. Apart from winning rewards during these events, employees earn GetActive currency, which allows every participant to redeem for goodies.

Based on these rewards and competitive events, GetActive program has high sustainability (46%), after 24 months of program initiation.